Pacers links: Paul George wants LeBron James as a mentor

Star report
9:32 p.m. EST March 6, 2014

Buy Photo

Pacers Paul George and Miami's LeBron James have a conversation under their jerseys in the first half. Indiana Pacers play the Miami Heat in game #6 of the Eastern Conference Finals Saturday, June 1, 2013, evening at Bankers Life Fieldhouse.(Photo: Matt Kryger / The Star)Buy Photo

Paul George wants to be mentored by LeBron James

In an interview with basketballinsiders.com Pacers All-Star Paul George said he wanted to gain knowledge from the Heat's LeBron James. George is already among the NBA's best, but it's no surprise that he wants to get better.

"It would be great to be able to pick his brain, pick his mind and just talk about the game because I think he's a player that can help me get to the next level and continue to keep going to the next level. I wish some day we have that relationship where he is someone I can talk to—not during the season because I'm too competitive during the season—but maybe in the summertime."

George expanded on this a little more:

"He's someone that motivates me," said George, who is averaging 22.7 points, 6.5 rebounds, 3.5 assists and 1.8 steals per game. "This league is all about guys being competitive and competing. And don't get me wrong, every time I'm matched up with him I'm going to try to get the best out of him and come out as the best player of that game. But at the same time, he's been someone that I looked up to. He's someone I'm going to continue to look up to because at the end of the day, the position I want to be in is where he's at."

Through Monday, the Pacers had allowed 0.94 points per pick-and-roll possession, easily the lowest mark in the league, according to SportVU data provided to NBA.com. As you'd expect, there's a strong correlation between SportVU's pick-and-roll numbers and defensive efficiency. The top four teams in the former are the top four in the latter.

Houston is 0-3 against Indiana since James Harden arrived in Houston last season. The biggest reason for the Rockets goose egg is how Indiana has bottled up Harden. Harden is averaging just 17.0 points on 24.6 percent shooting in three games against the Pacers over that span (tied for his lowest scoring average against any team – Clippers). Harden totaled just 12 points on 3-of-14 shooting in the only meeting between these teams this season back on December 20th in Indiana.

Rotoworld's Aaron Bruski usually writes about the fantasy football impact of NBA players, but he still offered up some thoughts on the Pacers' mini-slump. Here's some of what he had to say:

The time for talk is over. They know that and these are the moments that championship teams are made of. Like many teams, they need to find a way to get their star easier looks off the ball. The wear and tear of carrying the load has certainly knocked George back. Stephenson and the whole group need to move the ball a little bit better. Struggles on offense are carrying over into their defense, which has lost nearly 10 points per game off of its points allowed average over the last month or so. Evan Turner scored 22 points on 9-of-12 shooting with five assists and two threes all while holding a mop, and that was probably the lone, yet important silver lining to come out of last night. He needs to be ready to provide quality execution of ball handling duties in the event the big guns don't show up.

Most importantly, they need to get that angry chip back onto their shoulder and press their advantage defensively. Defense leads to offense as it's all so simple, yet if it were that easy everybody would be doing it.